201530620155105142292014852015Petr DolejšThis is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.http://zoobank.org/93FC6F2B-4980-4355-AF48-E9EB0A204E92Abstract

The centipede collection in the National Museum in Prague contains type material of 16 taxa (14 species and two subspecies), of which 15 were described by Luděk J. Dobroruka and one by Karl W. Verhoeff: Allothereuawilsonae Dobroruka, 1979; Chinobiusalenae Dobroruka, 1980; Lithobiuscorrigendus Dobroruka, 1988; Lithobiuscreticus Dobroruka, 1977; Lithobiuserythrocephalusmohelensis Dobroruka, 1959; Lithobiusevae Dobroruka, 1958; Lithobiusmagurensis Dobroruka, 1971; Lithobiuspurkynei Dobroruka, 1957; Lithobiustatricus Dobroruka, 1958; Lithobiustatricusmonounguis Dobroruka, 1958; Monotarsobiushomolaci Dobroruka, 1971; Monotarsobiuskrali Dobroruka, 1979; Pachymeriumdilottiae Dobroruka, 1976; Pachymeriumhanzaki Dobroruka, 1976; Scolopendraaztecorum Verhoeff, 1934 and Strigamiaolympica Dobroruka, 1977. Of these 16 taxa, five were described from the Czech Republic, three from Slovakia and eight from other countries (Greece, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Nepal, Russia and Uzbekistan). The eight taxa described from the Czech and Slovak Republics are now considered as junior synonyms but the eight taxa described from the other countries are still valid.

The most important part of the zoological collection of National Museum in Prague (NMP) is the type material. Up to now, catalogues of the type material of spiders (Růžička et al. 2005), vertebrates (Mlíkovský et al. 2011) and horsehair worms (Dolejš 2012) were published. The process of cataloguing the zoological type material is ongoing with this catalogue of centipede type material. There are no types of other myriapod classes despite 19 millipede and two symphylan taxa were described from the territory of the Czech Republic (Bezděk 2011). The centipede type material was deposited to the NMP in three distinct periods: 1930–1936 (material collected during expeditions organized by the NMP and people who were collaborating with the NMP), 1975–1978 (material collected by various collectors and provided to L. J. Dobroruka) and 2012–2014 (material found in Dobroruka’s personal collection). Majority of the material was collected by Czechs and the new taxa originated from these collections were described by L. J. Dobroruka and K. W. Verhoeff. The latter author described new Scolopendra species based on material collected by Czech acarologist Prof. Jaroslav Štorkán (20 April 1890 – 1 June 1942) who was collecting for the NMP in 1920s and 1930s. Thus, it is not surprising that a part of material collected by him came back to the NMP.

The collection of centipedes (containing ca. 1500 specimens representing ca. 150 species and subspecies from about 40 countries) is perfectly organized and catalogued thanks to RNDr. Ing. Luděk Jindřich Dobroruka (20 October 1933 – 4 July 2004) who worked in the NMP as a curator of Invertebrates in 1956 and continued with his work on centipedes in the NMP also in 1970s. His work resulted in publishing of catalogues of non-type Bulgarian (Dobroruka 1977a), Greek (Dobroruka 1977b) and Brazilian (Dobroruka 1979a) centipedes deposited there. Despite collaborating with the NMP, some types described by him remained in his personal collection and a part of them were deposited to the NMP after the work of Tuf et al. (2008). Unfortunately, the destination of several Dobroruka’s types is still unknown. More information about L. J. Dobroruka can be found in Felix (2004a, b), Hanák (2004), Kellnerová (2004), Růžička (2005), Tuf (2005) and Bartoš (2006).

Methods

All the specimens are preserved in 80% ethanol. Nomenclatural issues follow the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN 1999, 2012). Orig. = original combination (as proposed in the original publication), the first page with descriptions including figures and sex of the illustrated animal. Now = current status of the taxon. For grid squares of Czech and Slovak localities, see Buchar (1982) and Pruner and Míka (1996). Condition of the type material is provided as follows: excellent – good – reasonable – poor.

Results

Order: Scutigeromorpha

Family: Scutigeridae

Allothereuawilsonae Dobroruka, 1979

Orig.Allothereuawilsonae Dobroruka, 1979b: 101, figs 1–5 (♀).

Now.Allothereuawilsonae Dobroruka, 1979. The status of this species has never been revised since its original description.

Holotype. NMP P6E-1761, ♀ in poor condition (in two pieces, legs detached), collected by Jane M. Wilson on 14 October 1971 in one of the tents of the camp, near Mahendra Cave, Pokhara Valley, Nepal; 28°14.00'N, 83°59.00'E.

Order: Scolopendromorpha

Family: Scolopendridae

Scolopendraaztecorum Verhoeff, 1934

Orig.Scolopendraaztecorum Verhoeff, 1934: 49.

Now.Scolopendraaztecorum Verhoeff, 1934. Valid species according to Cupul-Magaña (2013).

Note. Other syntypes are deposited in the Zoologisches Museum der Humboldt-Universität, Berlin, Germany under number ZMB 13378 (Moritz and Fischer 1979); in the Bavarian State collection, Munich, Germany under numbers ZSM/Myr-20051044 and ZSM/Myr-20051045 (SysTax 2015); and in the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, the Netherlands under number RMNH.CHIL.154 (C. A. Martínez-Muñoz in litt.). Both Shelley (2006) and Cupul-Magaña (2013) erroneously regarded the specimen from Berlin as a holotype despite Verhoeff (1934) did not designate any type specimen and despite Moritz and Fischer (1979) referred to it as “Syntypus”.

Order: Geophilomorpha

Family: Geophilidae

Pachymeriumdilottiae Dobroruka, 1976

Orig.Pachymeriumdilottiae Dobroruka, 1976: 259, figs 1A–D (♂♀).

Now.Pachymeriumdilottiae Dobroruka, 1976. The status of this species has never been revised since its original description.

Note. Female holotype and four female paratypes were not labelled and thus indistinguishable among the type material mentioned. Other (non-type) male and female specimens (NMP P6E-1290) determined by Dobroruka as Lithobiuspurkynei were mentioned in Dobroruka (1977c).

Note. Male holotype, three male and one female paratypes were not labelled and thus indistinguishable among the type material mentioned. Other (non-type) male and female specimens (NMP P6E-1376, P6E-1380, P6E-1427, P6E-1439 and P6E-3082) determined by Dobroruka as Lithobiustatricus were mentioned in Dobroruka (1977c, 1998).

The zoological collection of the National Museum in Prague hosts (among others) type material of 16 centipede taxa. Both sctutigeromophs (Scutigeridae) and scolopendromorphs (Scolopendridae) are represented by one species, geophilomorphs (Geophilidae and Linotaenidae) by three species and lithobiomorphs (Lithobiidae) by 11 species and subspecies. Five species from the first three orders (Allothereuawilsonae, Scolopendraaztecorum, Pachymeriumdilottiae, Pachymeriumhanzaki and Strigamiaolympica) and three species from Lithobiomorpha (Lithobiusalenae, Lithobiuscreticus and Lithobiuskrali) are currently valid. The eight remaining lithobiomorph species and subspecies (Lithobiuscorrigendus, Lithobiuserythrocephalusmohelensis, Lithobiusevae, Lithobiushomolaci, Lithobiusmagurensis, Lithobiuspurkynei, Lithobiustatricus and Lithobiustatricusmonounguis) are now considered as junior synonyms.

Acknowledgments

I thank Ivan H. Tuf and Jana Dobroruková for information about L. J. Dobroruka and for providing me appropriate literature. I am grateful to Carlos A. Martínez-Muñoz for information about Scolopendraaztecorum. Finally, I would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions improving the earlier version of the manuscript. This study was fully supported by the project NAKI (DF12P01OVV021).